OhTwadi

amrit veley uth key, 2 ghantey simran kar key ja ban parr key (jo vi tuhanu jada pasand hai) fey ardaas kar lena. Satguru jee sarey kam sawar den gey I know job market is bad in India, but as I'm sure you will agree, money isn't everything. Jidda tusi menu ik vari keha si, koi dukaan hi khol lo nai ta. Try kar key dekh lo.

I was having a tough time at my job a few years ago and was discussing it with an older, wiser bhaji. Here is how the conversation went: bhaji: kidda mundea! me: bas bhaji challi janda bhaji: ki gal, bara dhilla bolda me: bas ji kam ney matt mari pai bhaji: acha, job change kar la me: try karda pea par labhdi ni hor (recession was going on at the time) bhaji: acha....shad dey fey me: oh ni kar sakda, bill deney hundey bhaji: leh oh tu kera bachea nu roti khawani aa. kam shad, ugprading kar 6 maheeney. fey vadia job lag jani I didn't actually follow his advice :rolleyes2: So I say the same to you, if you are miserable at your current job and you can afford to quit, then do so. The physical and psychological damage you are inflicting on your body and mind will be hard to reverse. It is now well established that people who work at night can never make up their sleep, regardless of how long they sleep during the day. Our sleeping pattern is ruled by the Sun! Baki aggey tuhadi marji aa. ardaas kar lo, guru sahib kirpa karan gey

It's not that simple, if you do your research, you will find that a almost all top level athletes are genetically gifted individuals. Yes they train hard and are mentally very tough, but to perform at such a high level and be successful, you need to be 'cream of the crop' as they say.

Bhaji, I'm not saying high carb and low protein. I'm saying for strength training you need both high carb and high protein. When I was on low carb + high protein diet, I would get out of energy half way through my workouts. I did say in my experience, maybe its just the way my body works... Most of what I say is from my personal experience.

I hate Chrome! It always loses my long posts So I will summarize yet again. There is plenty of research now available which stresses that it is not efficient to think of muscle groups. Rather one should think of the body as one cohesive unit, after all that is how is works in real life. So exercises which isolate muscles are not a considered a good use of one's time and efforts. Unless of course you are doing some rehab or working on specific muscles to address imbalances etc. Rarely I see this to be the case however. Most people work out their biceps for instance because they want bigger arms. Little do they realize that a) tricep (not bicep) makes up a larger chunk of their arms b) they will also work their bicep on the days they work their back; thus the poor small bicep muscle gets over worked and growth is hard to come by What I'm trying to say is that in order to build functional strength (you are almost never going to bench press anything in real life), stick to compound movements and move away from isolation exercises. Also, in my experience, muscle gains are next to impossible on a low carb + high protein diet. In fact, I actually end up getting injured when I was on a low carb diet. My gains came when I had a high carb + high protein diet. If you look at this thread, it explains how carbs can be consumed with out hampering one's fat loss efforts. Lastly, it is generally quite tough to loose fat and gain muscle at the same time. Usually this is only possible if someone is new to weight training, what I call the 'honeymoon phase' of a trainee. It can also be possible in those genetically gifted but rare individuals who can loose fat and gain muscle very easily. Edit: I'm sorry, just realized this has gone wayyyy off topic.

I can sort of relate to the OP. As many of you know, I started lifting weights early. If memory serves me correctly, I was the only Punjabi guy in my year who had gained some muscle as a consequence of weight training. I strictly remember, being told by many of my not so religious friends that if I didn't have a pugh, girls would line up every where I went. But, lucky for me, such things didn't bother me much. Looking back at it, am I glad and thank Satguru Jee for keeping me that way

Yes, that is precisely what I meant to write. Apologies for the confusion. Hanji that would be a good post workout meal. You have your carbs with the banana and protein + amino acids with milk. What makes this even better is that banana, due to its sugar content, will be metabolized and pumped into blood stream quite fast. This is precisely what you want to do post workout, to start the healing process asap. In order to trim fat and gain muscle, your diet has to be spot on. It will be tough and requires a lot of dedication, but it can certainly be done.I remember when I first starting lifting weights, I was about 16yrs old or so. I used to barely have any food through out the day, then after school hit the gym. I would get home in the evening, usually around 6 and have a HUGE meal. 8-10 rotia + 2 bowls of daal + 1 bowl of dahi + sabji. I gained a decent amount of strength and muscle doing this. No extra protein was ever touched. Back then I didn't know much about fitness so my diet and my exercise routine was quite crappy. But hey, being a 16 yr old kid does have it advantages. I got gains from basically anything I did in the gym. I would never recommend that anyone follow such a bad diet however. This is primarily because you end up exercising on an empty stomach and chances of getting your stomach royally screwed up are very high. If I may ask, what does your workout look like? It might be better to open a new thread for this however. Your diet is quite good. One thing to stress, especially if you have fruit after your meal like many typical Punjabi families, is to not do that. If you like to have fruit during meal time, have it 15-30mins before eating and never after. You can avoid the issue all together by making one meal/snack during the day as your fruit meal/snack

To make this more concrete, the only time you will be able to both gain fat and loose muscle at the same time will be the beginning few months of your training career. After that, it's slow muscle gains, especially for those who train naturally; think 1-2lbs/year! This does not apply to those genetically gifted individuals (who are very few in numbers) who can seemingly eat a large amount of food and not ever gain fat and can put on muscle with little weight training.

From the link that SunSingh provided above

I find it rather fascinating how we have been conditioned in to believing that we need a 'high protein' diet to get in shape. Protein builds muscle, there is absolutely no doubt about that, but building big muscles does not necessarily get you in shape. Additionally, the amount of protein you will get from a typical punjabi diet of daal + dahi is enough to be fairly strong and fit. Any extra protein is not really required. I have seen many a men who possess quite impressive physiques, but ask them to jog/run 5k and they start making all sorts of excuses because they know they can not do it. As you get older, what is going to matter will be your cardio vascular system, not how much weight you can bench press. To paraphrase my trainer, 'Every single brown guy I have trained only ever wants to work on 2 muscle groups, chest and biceps' This is a recipe for disaster, the amount of muscle imbalance this will develop will cause a lot of problems later on. I assume you are looking to loose some fat, the best way to accomplish this is to have a well balanced diet and couple of it exercise. That's all you need. I have lost weight (fat + muscle) a couple of times in the past with out actually doing any exercise at all. This is not generally a good approach however. If you have specific questions about diet and exercise, feel free to ask. But I refuse to give you a list of high protein foods which you may consume. After all, consuming a high protein diet with out the required exercise will also be potentially damaging.

Please do not cut carbs completely as that is the primary fuel source for our bodies. More specifically, our brains run solely on carbs. The key is moderation, the days you are active, it's perfectly fine to have carbs. I would even say that it is necessary to consume carbs on such days. While days when you just sit on your butt all day, probably best to reduce the amount of carbs or even food for that matter. I would also add that occasionally it's perfectly fine to have heavy carb meals even if you are spending most of the day doing nothing. It only becomes a problem when you start over eating on a regular basis. The healthiest people in the world consume food in such a way that their total consumption is just under total expenditure. In other words, their total calorie intake is just under what the body needs. But, this will not work if you are doing heavy weight training. In my opinion, no one should be lifting heavy weights anyway but that's another topic.

It may be okay to wear the support belt for a short period of time while sitting at kirtan programs etc. However, I would encourage you to consult with your chiro and physio before making a decision on it.

That's great. Just make sure you see the person who uses the activator technique. Good luck

Let me start off by reiterating that I'm not qualified to give you any advice. Please do consult with your doctor before taking anything on board I personally would not recommend that you put on back support belt. Regardless of if there are skeletal or muscle issues, once you put it on, over time it will implicitly train the back muscles to not work as much (as the support belt will take a bulk of the load). This will make the muscles even weaker and can cause bigger problems as you get older. Your aim should be to fix the underlying issues. I would say hold off this decision until you have visited the chiropractor a few times. I have personally experienced Activator and Diversified (manipulation) method and would never recommend Diversified method to anyone at all. A few years ago when I was getting treated using the Diversified method, it was not a pleasant experience; felt like my spine would break in half at times! Additionally, at the time of the adjustment, things felt quite good; but by the time I got home, pain was back. I have just Googled the McTimoney technique and I quite like it. This technique seems quite similar to the what the Activator method entails. Nervous system function was the first thing my chiropractor tested during our assessment. He also went through my entire life history, noting any injuries etc. You can watch a video of this technique here http://www.thechiropracticroom.co.uk/about_mctimoney.asp I would stay away from #3 as their main technique is diversified, this tells me that the chiropractors employed there are probably well versed with that technique and not nearly as experienced with the Activator technique. So the choice really boils down to #1 or #2.

Ask which technique they use before booking an appointment. Yes, chiro helped the most, but deep tissue massage played a big part in it as well. Even after the skeletal issues were most dealt with, I still had issues with my lower back. For instance, if I stood for more than a few minutes, it would get tired. Then if I stretched the low back, I would feel pops in the low back muscle (not the bone). I was told these were gas pops. I was told my back muscles were weak and thus got over stressed easily. This did not sit well with me because I know from my workouts that strength was not the issue. Also, when I was with a trainer, he would make me do 'advance' level exercises targeting my core and I could do with out much trouble at all. This re enforced my thinking that strength was not an issue. I did know that my low back was not 100%, I had a massive low back muscle spasm which rendered me incapable of walking for a couple of days. One day I decided to get deep tissue massage on my IT band and quad, as the foam roller just wasn't doing it anymore. Amazingly, after the soreness from massage went down, my low back felt 50% better! So it looks like the issue is tight muscles again, and not strength. IT band and quads were just not moving as they should, this put extra pressure on the weaker low back muscles. Now I have been focusing my massages on the IT band and quad (glutes are quite good now). These massages are some of the most painful ones I have ever had but I feel it's paying off quite nicely. I still weight train, usually once a week, but with lighter weights and don't do certain exercises which I know have the potential to cause problems. My weight training consists of the following now. - pull ups - rows - dips - dead lift, never going heavier than 135lbs - body weigh squats on the balance board (quite challenging) - balance/core work - stretching I hope my journey to getting healthy again helps you along the way If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask.

shucks, I wrote a long post but somehow lost it. So I'll summarize. I'm in Canada, so I wouldn't know of any chiropractors in England. I had multiple skeletal issues + muscle issues - misaligned pelvis; this has since been rectified more or less - deformed spine due to an injury I had as a child; I was thrown into a wall, back first; there isn't anything that can be done about this Muscle issues were there for two reasons. 1. since the underlying skeletal structure was misaligned, the muscles had to work extra hard to support my body. Over time they developed serious imbalances which were causing all sorts of issues. Back spasms were fairly routine occurrence at the time. 2. extensive heavy weight training I was doing certainly wasn't helping the muscles relax. While it did make me quite strong, I noticed that if I didn't train for a couple of weeks, muscles got quite weak again. The treatment was 3 fold - skeletal adjustment to align the bones - deep tissue massage + stretching to fix the muscle issues (initial massages were quite painful) - a drastic reduction in the amount and intensity of weight training I was doing Initially I was visiting the chiropractor 3 times/week but now it's less than once a month. It has been 1.5+ years now and I feel much better and healthier. I would definitely recommend that you go visit a well respected chiropractor in your area for at least an assessment. Also, please make sure the chiropractor you visit does not use the 'diversified technique' or what I call manual adjustment. The one I visit uses what is known as Activator technique. See link for details http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activator_technique

Could you please list the things that physio, chiro, and othropod did to assess your condition? I used to have all the problems you have listed above, primarily due to too much weight training, but after chiropractic care + massage I have improved about 80% I would say. I'm not qualified but rather a fitness enthusiast, I'm just curious about what may be going on with you.

That's interesting, what seems to be the problem with your back?

Sounds like you have a back issue? I would highly recommend that you go see a physiotherapist or a qualified chiropractor before doing any thing.

Yep, he's definitely on some 'enhancement' drugs. 1. You naturally can not get this big 2. Even if you could, all that muscle puts all your vital organs (your heart especially) under more stress than they are designed. This has detrimental effects in the long term. 3. Big does not always equal strong 4. If you stop taking the 'enhancement' drugs you will loose most of that muscle in a matter of weeks! 5. If you stop working out, even then you will loose all the muscle in a relatively short period of time 6. Don't let fitness take over your life (which is essentially what you have to do in order to get that big) It's really unnecessary to gain this much muscle, not to mention impractical. Fitness should always be taken up with the intent of enhancing your quality of life. Having said all that, the 'enhancement' drugs he is clearly taking are sadly absolutely necessary in the profession of body building or else he will not have a chance to compete at any level. Even the so called natural body building events allows competitors to take enhancement drugs like steroids orally, injections are not allowed there.

lol That's the best you got? Oh yeah, I got nothing better to do than look some random pic of some random kuri on the net It might come as a shock to you, but the person in the picture (I doubt it's really you) is not drop dead gorgeous I seen better with my eyes closed Oh and if you are going to swear at me, at least use 'standardized swearing system' so everyone can understand what you mean

I was talking to my Muslim neighbour about this and how people say Muslim's claim Guru Nanak to be Muslim. He was curious where I was getting my information from so I showed him this thread. He looked at the first post, saw Kally's display picture and yelled, "HERRR !!!! She was over at my house yesterday and was asking me the same question except she said her next door Sikh neighbour who is a Sikh insists that Mohammad was a Sikh!" He then proceeded to add that her chunni was not able to stay on her body just like the display pic A lot of times age and maturity don't grow together. More of then not, poor maturity can't keep to one's physical age

Very very interesting stuff! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y5bXdx5UrE

http://www.alternet.org/economy/151767/the_reason_ceos_make_350_times_more_money_than_their_workers_--_and_why_that%27s_terrible_for_the_economy/

Things you are doing appear to be okay, I'm not sure how much can be changed. At the end of the day, not everyone has the genetic potential to be "strong". If you don't mind me asking, are you training for a specific sport? Personally, I feel your protein intake is too high. But that would not impact your strength in a negative fashion. It may however impact certain organs of the body. I'm sure you already know this, but it doesn't hurt to get a reminder One thing that stood out from your posts is that your calorie intake = calories spent. While calorie counting is not an exact science, I would encourage you to add 300-500 calories to your daily food intake. Add these in your post workout meals and make them high quality carbs. I don't see if you have given your typical post workout meal. Of all the meals of the day, that is the most critical to build strength.